It’s tempting to look for candidates with lots of experience for your open positions. But at this time of year, and through the fall, consider looking for new college grads. Not just because I have a daughter who just graduated, but because new grads offer you an opportunity to steer people without a lot of […]
I recently led a workshop on Hiring for an Agile Team. We discussed diversity and I explained my position: the more complex the problem, the more personality and experience diversity you want on your team. That’s because different approaches to solving problems and backgrounds help the team see what their options are. I once worked
There’s a push in the agile community to recognize women and see if we can’t get more women on agile teams. Whatever you think about the program, the goal is a laudable one. Hiring women creates a diversity that is difficult to match with an all-male team. Women tend to bring more collaborative skills and
The people who are organizing Your Team Needs Women have a good idea–diversity in teams. I have a problem with how they are doing it. I have tried to contribute to the agile community, chairing the Agile 2009 conference, speaking at user groups, writing for a number of outlets, working with my clients. I do
I read a bunch of blogs, and Evolving Excellence is consistently good. I was struck by this post, Homozygosity – That’s The Problem!. I had never heard of homozygosity before, so I looked it up. According to Merriam-Webster, it’s having the two genes at corresponding loci on homologous chromosomes identical for one or more loci
In the comments to Why Hire Junior Contractors?, one of my recruiter colleagues, MN Headhunter, asked a great question: …if we do not hire junior developers how they gain the experience to be a senior developer? I was not clear enough in my original post. I believe in hiring a diverse team, especially in diversity
I was surprised by the comments I received on my Stickyminds article last week. Then I read Brian Marick’s insightful Tester who can script and I may have the words to describe my surprise and concerns. I was surprised by the people who commented that they were looking primarily for personality fit and cultural fit.
While perusing some of the Joel on Software discussions, I saw the pointer to “Mini-me” syndrome…a major hiring risk for companies. Heather discusses her concerns: Recruiting from certain schools can prevent you from hiring the best — because that recruiting limits your intake of candidates. It tightens your screen before you’ve even gotten to resume
I was talking to a hiring manager recently, and she said, “I’d like to get another developer just like Stan.” Well, Stan is a good guy and a talented developer, but why look for someone just like him? The manager explained, “I’m staffing a particularly risky project and with someone just like Stan, I know
I’ve been musing over types of people on projects lately. This morning, my husband and I exhibited two common types: the serially, walk-through-the-whole-thing-systematically type (hubby), and the big picture, can’t-wait-to-see-it-put-together type (me). See Do Your Interview Questions Discriminate For or Against Your Needs? for more information. Mark’s a Guardian (SJ in MBTI terms), I’m a Rational (NT